Star Wars: The X Effect
by Comorep677
Summary: In a republic shrouded by darkness and plagued by war, a young, bright beacon of hope has been discovered sleeping in the home of Reed Richards and Susan Storm by the wise and powerful Master Yoda, drawing the tiny planet on the outer rim known as Earth into a conflict that will decide the fate of the galaxy. However, Yoda is not the only one who knows of its existence...
1. A Fantastic Opportunity

**THE X EFFECT**

 **A GALAXY AND ITS REPUBLIC ARE PLAGUED BY WAR.**

 **HOPING TO SPREAD ITS GREED AND POVERTY TO EACH END OF THE GALAXY, THE SEPARATISTS, LED BY THE MYSTERIOUS COUNT DOOKU, HAVE AIMED THEIR EFFORTS TO THE NEUTRAL OUTER RIM.**

 **WITH THE CLONES AND THE JEDI LEADING THEM SPREAD THIN THROUGH THE STARS, A SHROUD OF DARKNESS FALLS UPON THE KNIGHTS OF ORDER AND PEACE.**

 **HOWEVER, A BEACON OF LIGHT DISCOVERED BY THE VISIONS OF THE WISE AND POWERFUL MASTER YODA DIRECTS THE FATE OF THE WAR, AND ALL EYES WATCHING, TO A TINY PLANET ON THE OUTER RIM CALLED EARTH…**

* * *

"No guards, no force field, not even a laser grid- can you believe this, Cad?" a deep, raspy, reptilian voice growled up to his leader as they scaled the side of a short skyscraper. At least it was short to them.

"Quiet, Bossk," Cad said, feeling the night winds of this strange, quaint little planet ruffle the coattail of his slim, brown duster. He reached up with one hand, taking it from the glass of the building to straighten out his wide-brimmed, brown hat that shielded his glowing red eyes and blue skin on his smooth face when he didn't need them to be seen. "13 Kwillops from the objective."

"Do not disappoint me," a deep, brooding and regal voice hissed into his earpiece. "It is imperative that you return to me with it before the Jedi return from Utapau."

"Sir, if I may," the tiny, floating, black bot with a round body and long head said, connected to Cad's radio frequency, "Earth to your location- he would need to return in 13 parsecs to make it back before the Jedi."

The voice on the other end of the line was quiet for a moment. "If you want your pay, I would suggest making it here in 12."

Cad spoke before his droid could. "I'll see it done, Count Dooku." The line cut to static. His employer was not pleased, although he never seemed pleased anyway.

Cad shot a dirty glare at his small robot companion. "Todo 360, what have I told you about speaking without my permission?"

The white lights in Todo's eye sockets rolled. "It was a valid point, with all due respect, we would essentially commit ourselves to a Kessel Run; the fastest ship ever to do that managed it in 12.5 parsecs, and with these stolen Republic fighter ships, there is no way we'll be able to-"

"Shut up," Cad said bluntly, raising his fist. All of the bounty hunters stopped in their tracks, waiting for their leader's next command. Cad looked at a small, blue panel on his arm. "Scan the perimeter."

Within a moment, the panel displayed a series of blue flashes that spread an intimidating grin on Cad's face. "IG-86, shut it down."

He looked down at the second droid accompanying them on their climb up, seeing the black, skeletal construction with a red, glowing eye and a long, vertical head attach a black pulsating object to the side of the building. Cad's smile vanished with the building's tall, red banner's light dying. "Move it, we do not have much time," Cad said, looking inside the room he was hanging outside. It was a simple living room, he determined, with a large, primitive flat-screen projector on one wall, couches and chairs arranged to face it, with exotic plants in the corners and a long bookshelf stocked with books about chemistry and astronomy. At least this planet had a grasp on science judging by the constellations and microscope captures on the book covers, although nowhere near as extensive as some other planets he'd been to. "IG-86!" he snapped.

IG-86 spat back with a few rapid beeps and climbed next to Cad. With a few clicks, its fingers became tiny laser beams that melted a man-sized circle into the window.

"Go, go, go," Cad whispered, ushering Bossk, Todo, and IG-86 inside. He carefully stepped into the room, drawing a sighted pistol with a strange adapter in the place of a magazine. "Bossk, come with me, upstairs. Todo, IG-86, wait for my signal before you wish to attack, _anything_."

"Yessir," Todo said, leading IG-86 down one hallway while the two flesh-and-bone hunters crept up a winding case of metal stairs. The pulsing on his blue detector device grew stronger as Cad and his widemouth, sharp toothed companion with red eyes and a scaly head stepped into a circular hall, four rooms in all directions as well as two long hallways leading deeper in the silent home.

Bossk loaded the thick barreled, black blaster slung over his shoulder and nodded to his partner, slithering down the hallway to the left. Cad followed his device's signaling down the hallway to the right, it's flashes now a solid blue bar as he pushed open a white, wooden door to a toddler's bedroom. It was like any other child's bedroom, a firetruck-themed comforter in a bed sitting in the corner of the room with white clouds painted against a sky blue background, a bouncy ball on a rug in the middle of the hardwood floor, a toy bin and a small bookshelf with picture books leaning on it. What rested in the bed was what gave him work tonight, and it was quite extraordinary. "Visual," Cad whispered, "turning on transmission mode so you can take a look around."

"Hurry up," his boss demanded.

"You can now see everything I am seeing now," Cad said, walking over to the foot of the bed and staring at the calm, blonde toddler sleeping in perfect tranquility, a thin trail of saliva from his mouth and onto the pillow with a small, rotating toy plane above him with the front of the plane focused on the child. "A broken toy… building blocks…" Cad scoffed. "Is-is this the one? This snotty son of savages will end the Clone Wars?"

"Ah, yes," Dooku said, as if he had just sat in a hot bath with whatever he was sensing washing over him. "I can feel his power all the way from here. Do not underestimate him, Bane, remember what you said about Skywalker."

"At least Skywalker would put up a decent fight," Cad said, changing his tone as he remembered who he was talking to. "You will have him, Count." He crouched and crept up to the side of the bed, slithering his hand over the covers. A short flash sputtered from the broken toy plane and his hand spasmed in pain so great he recoiled all the way across the room. He swallowed a yelp and looked at his hand, grimacing at the bright purple blister swelling on his hand. A red laser passed over it and his eyes followed it, growing to realize that the broken airplane was not a toy, and focused right on his forehead. He rolled out of the way and watched the small ballistic round dig into the wood of the boy's closet.

"Reed, someone's in Franklin's room!" a woman shouted from down the long hallway. "Go downstairs, make sure they don't go very far, I'll check on the baby!"

"Now?" Bossk asked through their communicator. "IG-86 and I are hiding in a closet; it's getting uncomfortable and I'm itching for a fight!"

Cad cursed under his breath. "Wait," he whispered, taking off his hat and replacing it with a hood that made his duster look more like a cloak. He kept one hand under his cloak and pulled out a long, studded and intricately detailed metal rod with a black opening on one end and a silver plate on the other. Toward the open end there was a small conical protrusion, almost like a handguard. He stood up and watched a blonde, human woman of average height run into the room in a white shirt and blue pajama pants, her blue eyes glowering with rage. She stared at him quizzically, confused and perplexed nearly just as much as she was angry.

"Who in the hell are you?" she spat. "What are you doing in my son's room?"

"Greetings," he said through a translator tucked in the collar of his shirt. He hated how his voice sounded in the language the mother shouted at him in, very dark, deep, brooding. "I am Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master, and representative of Coruscant and the Galactic Republic. I am here to speak to you about your child." He stepped forward and she outstretched her hand. Cad's toe hit a wall that wasn't there, and before he could draw his gun, he was flattened to the opposite wall by this intangible but effective force.

"I got that much by the alarm," she said, "drop your weapons and start talking, or the next bed you'll be approaching will be laid out for you in a hospital."

"M-mommy?" the child stammered. "Who's the scary man in my room?"

"Don't worry baby," she said, crushing Cad even more. "Mommy's here."

"Your son is in grave danger," Cad said, slowly sliding his pistol just out of their vision under his duster cloak, "I just want to talk about what we can do to keep him out of harm's way."

"Kill them," Dooku instructed.

Cad wanted to, but it was clear she was capable of something extraordinary as well. "Please, let this field down, so that we may discuss this."

She laughed at him a little, her scowl twisting into an unbelieving smile every few seconds. "You break into our home, attempt to take our child, and expect us to be diplomatic?"

"I've instructed Bossk and IG-86 to follow my orders," Dooku hissed, followed by a loud reptilian roar from downstairs. She gasped and looked toward the doorway, whipping Bane into the bookcase with her strange powers as she lost concentration on him. "If you would like to come back to me assured that I will not kill you myself, then I would suggest _finishing the job._ "

Bane quickly drew his pistol and fired a red laser beam at the woman. She scowled at him and held her hand out, bouncing the beam away with another projection. "You have no idea who you're dealing with!" she shouted.

Bane fired a few times but she was no longer there, although he could hear her stomping across the room even over the toddler's terrified cries. He fired another time, hearing her cry out in pain before a kick from the invisible woman planted itself into his chin. He scrambled to his feet and swept whatever was in front of him, hearing a satisfying thud of the mother on the floor as he tracked the blood dripping from her leg wound that tipped him off. He darted toward the bed and swept Franklin from his bed, racing down the steps where IG-86, Bossk, and Todo were fighting the father. "End him already!" Cad snarled, holding the baby in his arm like a football while he aimed his pistol at the husband.

The dad's enraged brown eyes met Cad's red ones, and the sudden push of Cad down the stairwell by the mother indicated this wasn't going to be an easy fight. He curled into a ball to protect his object and stood up, facing the father face to face. He was a tall, fair-skinned human who was well built with short, neat brown hair with two distinct silver streaks over his sideburns on the sides of his head. Bossk aimed his slow sniper rifle at his head and quickly found the man's fist in his face ten feet away. Cad's jaw slowly widened as the man's arm retracted from its incredible length, as if it was made of rubber. IG-86 and Todo's arms morphed into taser-like appendages and rushed him, but his wife was in the way with another force field that bounced them into the kitchen. IG rose to his feet and rummaged through the kitchen, whipping knives at the elastic man who stretched and extended every part of his body to dodge. Even Cad needed to duck a few. "IG-86, you buffoon! The child! Do not harm the child!" He ducked a punch from the fantastic man and placed a round, buzzing device on his stomach. The dad cried out in pain and doubled over, gritting his teeth to grab and crush the shock device. Cad ran for the window but hit an invisible panel headfirst, loosening his grip on the child. "Boba!" he shouted in his communicator. "Get the ship ready, we may leave with a lighter load than intended!"

He heard a chuckle from the other side. "Those savages are giving you a hard time-"

"Do not test me, _boy!_ " he growled, taking an invisible kick and an unseen punch to the pack of the head. He whipped around and spun the silver rod around, aiming it at the child's neck. "Stop it, stop it now! I'll do it!"

"Let go of my son!" Reed barked, throwing a stretchy right cross across the room that nailed Cad straight where his nose should be. The invisible mother ripped Franklin from his arms and the family backed away from the four bounty hunters until they hit the doors to their upscale apartment.

Cad smirked and drew his twin pistols, Bossk aimed his sniper rifle at them again, and the two robots inched closer with their hands sparking with live electricity. "I tried to be nice," Cad said, aiming a pistol at each head, "but now you've incurred the wrath of the Jedi."

"What is a Jedi?" the father asked.

Bossk let out a shrill, piercing noise that sounded like a million nails were being dragged down a chalkboard at the same time, he was laughing. "What is a Jedi?" he coughed. "You won't live long enough to find out."

Dooku gave the order before Cad could. "Fire."

Cad repeated his employer. "Fire."

The mother held out her hand and the blasts were absorbed, but her arm recoiled as if she still felt the impact from the shot. "It appears she is hurt," Todo said.

IG beeped.

"Yes, I agree," Cad said, "wear her down- she can't take this for much longer."

"Get out of here with Franklin, Reed!" she shouted, wincing with every shot.

"I won't leave you, Susan!" Reed exclaimed.

Cad pulled out a metal orb from his jacket. "How cute- IG, kill them both."

IG-86 beeped affirmatively and rushed the field, ready to pierce the mother and gut her like a fish. The doors behind them broke with an astounding smash and a brown, stony hand squeezed around IG's arm.

"What the hell is that _thing_?" Bossk shouted, seeing mountainous, nine foot tall humanoid monster made of rock and wearing blue stretchy pants with a silver "4" on each thigh. Next to him was a well built, blond human of average height, fair skin, and the same scowl and blue eyes as Susan.

"It doesn't matter, turn him into cement!" Todo cried in horror, zapping the rock man will all his little might. The lasers from the other three bounty hunters scorched his skin, but it seemed to make him more upset than hurt. The thing charged at them with a battle cry that unsettled them more than anything they had faced before.

" _It's_ _Clobberin' Time!_ " the beast man exclaimed, tearing the assassin bot's arm clean off and kicking it across the room. He swatted Cad aside and punched clean through IG's chest, just tapping the wall with a flint knuckle. Bossk hissed like a snake and lunged forward, getting tossed aside like a gecko facing a tyrannosaurus rex.

Susan stepped forward and winced in pain, dropping to one knee. "Honey, don't touch mommy there, it hurts a lot."

"They hurt mommy!" Franklin bawled, hugging the other man's leg and burying his head into his knee.

"Don't worry, kid," the blond man said, helping Susan stay on her feet while the rock man and the elastic man tore up the living room with the two bounty hunters and Todo. "Uncle Johnny's got you."

Cad realized, with the husband's arm coiling around his throat like a snake and his pistol hand bound by the same arm, that he would have to leave with or without the child if he wanted any chance of returning alive. His wife had cast some sort of field around him rendering any pistols against him useless, but Cad had been in stickier situations. He quickly reached into his pocket, dropping the metal rod as he did and pulled out a green, sloshing orb of liquid suspension. He whipped it at Susan and kicked Reed in the chest as hard as he could. Reed gasped and whipped Cad into the wall, diving back to catch the orb. He held it in his hand and stared into it just before it burst, filling his nose with a noxious gas. Reed's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell forward, unconscious.

"Well it's about time!" Todo said, just before one clap from the rock monster crushed his abdomen and dropped him like a broken game console.

"Damn it!" Cad whipped several black pellets onto the ground, filling the room with thick black smoke that dropped every human in the room writhing as they fought to breathe. The stone beast waved around wildly in the smoke while Bossk and Cad unhooked the gas masks from their belts and put them on victoriously. "I was going to leave you here to rot, but in hindsight," he said, easily swiping the kid again, "this could have been done a lot easier."

Bossk debated biting Cad's head off. "Dooku never warned us of this," he said, running after Cad and leaping out the window with the screaming child, "with the way that- that _monstrosity_ tore through that assassin droid, I thought we were done for." Their boots spat out a steady jet stream and off they went, higher into the sky from a building that looked like it had just been bombed.

Cad looked back at the building one more time, seeing the blond man free falling from the building. "We're not out of the woods yet," he said.

" _Flame On!_ " the uncle exclaimed, his blue, spandex suit marked by the silver "4" catching a bright orange flame that consumed him from head to toe. He straightened out like a rocket and burst into the air. "I won't let you get away!" he shouted, chasing them through the busy, bustling city where many paused for a moment to watch the spectacle above them.

"Gas transportation, still?" Bossk said, firing back at the flame. "How bizarre!"

Cad was also surprised by the lack of air traffic, but there were things stranger than that in the city alone. "An Invisible Woman, a Human Torch, a Thing, all banded together by some Mister Fantastic, and you're mystified over fossil fuels?"

"The air is so bad here!" Bossk said, continuing to fire at the flying flame.

"Sometimes if you weren't such a good shot…"

"What is _that_?!" Bossk exclaimed, turning his attention to a humanoid in a blue and red jumpsuit with large, insectoid eyes and a black emblem of a spider on its chest swinging from building to building on what looked like thick, webby expulsions from its wrists.

"It does not matter, kill it, kill it now!" Cad shouted, the duo unleashing a rain of laser fire on it. Bossk shouted in surprise as a web hit his gun and he was yanked thirty feet into a fist that knocked him out cold.

"Wow, and we were always told in school that you guys were green! Major upgrade!" the spider man taunted, attaching a web to Cad's boot and whipping himself toward the bounty hunter.

Cad's anger boiled and bubbled at the dinosaur in a yellow suit's body laying out cold on the top of a building. "Useless!" he shouted, firing everything he had at the swinging spandex man.

The spider man flipped over him. "He goes for the steal, Mister Potter's got a bright future in Quidditch if he can make this play," he said, snatching Franklin from Cad's arms and swinging away before Cad could catch him. "And it's good! Ten points to Gryffindor!"

"Hey!" Cad shouted, whipping around and gasping to duck a fireball that just barely singed his cloak.

"I've got you now!" the Human Torch shouted, firing a stream of flame at the bounty hunter.

Cad scoffed and reached into his cloak, pulling out a bag of gray salt that he whipped right into the fiery man's chest then fired at it. He screamed in pain as the bag burst, gray salt coating his body and turning the flame purple. Johnny dived toward the large river to the north of them, leaving Cad homefree. Cad chuckled and sailed away, higher than the webs grabbing for his ankle could reach. "Boba, is the ship ready for takeoff?"

"Yes, and you might want to hurry, I think more of those weirdos might try chasing us out if we're not quick enough," Boba said.

"You're not getting away from me!" the spider man shouted. Cad turned around, grimacing again as the childless webslinger jetted down the street after him. "Don't you have a performance with the rest of the Blue Man Group tonight?"

"Trust me, I know," Cad said, flying and firing at the agile man who dodged as if he could sense every shot he fired. The spider man ran off the side of the building and dodged multiple floating grenades that didn't even faze him.

"If I wasn't trying to pound you into the dirt, I'd find that really cool!" he taunted, just barely missing a webline that would have attached itself to his boot.

"I'm not taking any passengers!" Cad said, throwing a orange metal pod and firing it right as his pursuer prepared to dodge. The spider man went silent, coming out in a coat of orange ice as he slid onto the top of a building. "Have fun thawing."

He continued sailing through the sky until he landed on a building tucked in the outskirts of the city. A cloaked spacecraft waited for him, materializing as a large, white ship with wide, flat wings with propulsion technology more advanced than anything found on the planet. The body was shaped like a trapezoidal pyramid with a wide, dropping door on one side like a cargo hatch. "It's about time," Boba taunted in Cad's buzzing earpiece.

"Just open the damn cockpit and let's get out of here," Cad spat, hopping into the empty, cold, metal back of the ship as the hatch closed. He rushed to the front of the ship, whipping open the cockpit and sliding into the copilot's chair next to his teenage pilot. He was short but muscular, with bouncy brown hair and brown eyes.

"Didn't you bring a kid with you?" he said with a smirk. "Dooku isn't going to be happy with this."

Cad wanted to blow the pilot's brains out, but then he'd have to bring the ship and a body back. "Boba, did I tell you to whine?"

"Yeah, yeah," Boba said dismissively, punching the main thruster. "I'm just thinking about the last time you screwed up a mission for the Count- he's not generally a forgiving person."

Cad's eyes narrowed, staring at the magnificent, open galaxy in the shining, starry void as the seeds of misdirection he planted among their objective's parents started to grow in his mind. "We've stumbled upon something far greater than kidnapping, Boba."

The hologram communicator in the center of the dashboard of their ship turned on by itself, displaying an old, offputting man with glowing eyes wearing extravagant, black robes and a hood sitting in a grand chair at a desk. His glare combined with his deep scowl chilled Boba to the bone. "And you let it fall right out of your hands, bounty hunter. I warned Dooku of trusting you."

Boba turned to Cad, for once seeing him lose his cool as he perspired waterfalls through his duster. "We now know what we are up against, my lord, and with Bossk and the others on the inside, upon our return we can-"

"There will not be a next time, Bane," Cad's superior scolded, "it is now between us and the Jedi- you are no longer associated with our organization."

"When will you have another opportunity to send someone of my talent to do your bidding?" Cad asked, trying to retain his job, or his pride.

His ultimate employer was quiet for a moment, looking at something past Bane. "Is it time?"

"Yes, my lord," Dooku's voice said from the distance.

He settled his gaze back on Cad, staring into his soul. "The Sith control more than you believe," he said, "stay out of our way, or suffer the consequences." The transmission ended and Cad stumbled back into his chair, visibly shaking with spite. The cockpit dropped in temperature considerably ever since the conversation began, but they felt smothered, as if they were going to be crushed.

Boba broke the tense silence carefully, watching for Cad's hand tracing his pistol in his duster holster. "I'm all for putting down as many Jedi as we can, but believe me, we don't want to get in the way of a Sith Lord if he's working with the Separatists, at least not for a few weeks."

Cad looked up at the map charting their course in the bottom right corner of the windshield. "Oh, we're coming back for the child," he said, a grin spreading across his face, "once the Jedi get involved, the entire galaxy will know about it," He turned to Boba, who was following on the same page, "and I know some people who would kill for a foot in this race."

* * *

 **WILL DOOKU** **RECTIFY BANE FOR HIS FAILINGS? WHAT OF BOSSK AND THE BOUNTY HUNTERS LEFT BEHIND? WHO WERE THESE STRANGE HUMANS? WHO ARE THE JEDI? WHAT FORCE WILL THIS FAILURE ATTRACT TO EARTH? WHAT WEAPON IS FRANKLIN CONCEALING? WHO ARE BANE'S CONTACTS? OTHER THOUGHTS/COMMENTS? REVIEW!**

 **HEY GUYS, AS YOU CAN SEE, A FEW THINGS WILL BE CHANGED FOR THE STORY SUCH AS:**

 **-EARTH BEING ON THE BORDER OF THE OUTER RIM**

 **-THE JEDI WILL USE THE FORCE A BIT MORE THAN SEEN IN THE SERIES, GENERALLY THE MASTERS WILL HAVE A BETTER COMMAND OVER THE FORCE WITH FEATS NOT SEEN IN THE SERIES**

 **-VIBRANIUM AND ADAMANTIUM WILL BE ABLE TO BLOCK LIGHTSABER BLADES BUT LIKE ANY SET OF METAL DOORS IN THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE, THE METAL WILL GIVE EVENTUALLY**

 **-THROUGH THE FORCE, JEDI/SITH WILL BE ABLE TO BLOCK BULLETS BUT NOT DEFLECT THEM (LIKE, HANDGUN/SEMIAUTOMATIC ROUNDS, NOT SPRAY-N-PRAY OR GATLING WEAPONS) WITH THEIR LIGHTSABERS; IT WILL BE HARDER FOR THEM TO BLOCK THAN THE LASER BEAMS SEEN IN THE SERIES**

 **-FINALLY, I KNOW WE ONLY SAW ONE AVENGER; THIS FIC WILL FEATURE MAINLY THE MOVIE/TV CAST OF MARVEL HEROES (FANTASTIC FOUR, AVENGERS, GOTG, DEFENDERS, X-MEN, ETC), WITH APPEARANCES FROM OTHER HEROES WHO HAVEN'T APPEARED YET FROM TIME TO TIME.**

 **YOUR THOUGHTS ON CHAPTER ONE?**


	2. Guarding the Galaxy

_In space..._

"Get them off my tail, Anakin!" the golden-brown bearded fighter pilot ordered into a headset as he sailed through a field of cluttered ship debris from fallen pilots on the enemy's side and theirs just above the atmosphere of a large, green and brown planet. A volley of red laser bolts sailed past him, causing the red, podular droid resting on the wing of his red and gray, experienced battleship to beep frantically into the headset. "I know, R4, but it seems like Anakin's a little busy at the moment-" The ship jolted forward and veered right, with a blue screen on his intricate control panel now flashing red. "I'm hit, think you can fix it, R4?"

R4 gave him a reassuring beep and within seconds the screen turned from red to orange.

"This'll hold me until we board that Dreadnought," the pilot said, shooting straight up until he looped around his three assailants. Their ships were of a strange make: a round cockpit in the middle of three arcing wings in a triangular formation with a long needle at the front with two red laser ports below glowing, red headlights. The pilot chuckled, squeezing the triggers as hard as he could. "I've got you now," he said, blasting right through all three of them in a haze of blue plasma turrets. He sailed through the fire, spinning and diving through wrecked hulls of fallen enemies and comrades as he appeared through the thick of black ships piloted by pale, skeletal droids with long, yellow heads with cheap antennae stuck up on one side of their heads. The pilot knew what they looked like after seeing their frail, thin frames floating through the void of space. "There she is," the pilot said. R4 turned its golf ball sized camera toward the mile-long , diamond-shaped goliath slowly chewing up and spitting out anything in its path with lasers of all colors blasting out from all directions. R4 beeped curiously and turned its eye to its pilot. "Yes, I know, it has one of the best security systems in the entire galaxy, meant to keep us Jedi out," he chuckled, "but Anakin and I know our way in; if Anakin ever _answers_ his communicator then we can figure out why Separatists have just suddenly sprang up this far in the outer rim."

"You called, Master?" a younger, more laid-back voice said over the communicator.

The pilot looked up, watching a yellow version of his ship, a pill-shaped pod in the center of two thick wings fastened sturdy and straight on the sides propelled by blue combustion emanating from ports on each wing, fly overhead. "I did, but I think I'm starting to catch up to you."

Anakin chuckled, apparently getting shot at as the duo danced toward an even more dangerous ship was every day for them. "That's your senility talking, old man."

"I'd say my memory is crystal clear of me having to fire buzz droids off your wing while flying to Sankar Torr," he said.

"Obi Wan, tsk tsk," Anakin said, "I thought being petty wasn't the Jedi Way."

"But listening to and respecting your master _is_ the Jedi Way, _padawan_ ," Obi Wan teased.

"Hey! I have a padawan of my own now, grandpa, and she's worse than I ever was!"

"Okay, now you're simply lying," Obi Wan said, firing at a small gray line in between a wide hangar and a force field emitter, "but I will need some help over here."

Anakin's ship veered left, dodging a volley of blasts from enemy ships. "Give me a minute."

Obi Wan barely barrel-rolled away from multiple blasts that would have killed his engine and whipped around, firing head on at two incoming ships. He shot straight through the flames and continued assaulting the field emitter until it started to spark. "Alright, Anakin, we have T-minus twelve seconds until the field shuts down for an automatic reset, get ready to race for it."

The red and yellow ships completed a full loop and charged for the field as the barrier flickered, but they weren't the ones to reach the entrance first. "Master?" Anakin said. Both pilots looked up, seeing a yellow ship with wide, pointed wings and a chrome javelin on the cockpit sail overhead and slide into the hangar of the ship with them just as the barrier closed again.

"A Ravager M-Ship? In this sector?" Obi Wan said, landing roughly through a crowd of the droids that piloted the ships running around with black blasters. The two pilots' cockpits opened and they leaped into action. Anakin was roughly his height, maybe a little taller, with medium length wavy brown hair, heroically blue eyes, fair skin, and a long, faded vertical scar dangerously close to his right eye. They both wore long but light robes and brown boots over fit physiques to physically leap that high, although Anakin's attire was black and dark brown while Obi Wan sported a beige attire under a warm brown cloak. They stood back to back, pulling out two intricately designed gray metal rods with red buttons covered by a slip on the center and a hole in the end of each rod. They hit their buttons and out sprang buzzing, shining blue katana-length blades with a white hot core under the blue glow.

One of the droids pointed its blaster at the duo. "It's the Jedi! Blast them!"

"I was going to offer to talk," Obi Wan said, his appearance older but more approachable than his apprentice's. He had shorter, light brown hair and thick facial hair that fit a more learned persona, fair skin, and mature yet playful green eyes.

"Oh, don't worry Master," Anakin chuckled, bouncing red laser blasts off his blade back at the horde of droids like he was playing baseball, "we have one of the Neimodians himself on this ship-possibly the Viceroy-so I'm sure there will be plenty of time for you to live up to your name."

"I cannot even begin to wonder what put the Separatists in such a fuss that they would suddenly blockade over Rodin, especially since Geonosis is theirs again," Obi Wan said, "certainly they found _something_ on Rodin that would attract the likes of space pirates-"

"Whom of which will get to Gunray first if we don't finish up here quickly," Anakin cut in, "I'll tell Snips to stay on standby if the scrap metal gets reinforcements."

"Hey!" one of the larger, tankier droids in navy blue said, looking just like a torso and limbs with a red eye on one side of its chest. "My mother got turned into scrap metal!"

"So sorry for your loss, battle droid," Obi Wan said, opening his hand and seemingly pushing the air, instead flattening a third of the approaching droids into the wall on the end of the hangar bay. He looked at the Ravager clumsily sliding through a line of droids until it tapped the wall and a bottom hatch opened. "Hold on…" he muttered, blocking blasts with his saber on instinct as he watched by far the strangest collection of individuals he'd ever seen race through the hangar and into the bottom deck half a mile away. One of them he saw clearly was a man of average height wearing black clothing and a red jacket with an empty necklace around his neck. "I don't think those are space pirates, Anakin."

Anakin darted forward, rolling between a droid's legs and zipping through seven others. He whipped around and swung his free arm around as if he was throwing something. The pieces of the eight dead droids at his hand were whipped into their allies. "You're telling me someone stole a space pirate ship and came all the way here knowingly through our territory?"

"It hasn't been the weirdest thing to happen today," Obi Wan said, "but we're about to find out." He deflected a whip from the last droid's gun and easily sunk his blade through its chest, dropping him instantly.

Anakin looked toward his ship, smiling at the blue and white droid shaped just like R4 that popped out from its section on the wing. The pill-shaped, short robot leaning back on two legs that extended from just below its head and a center wheel under its body looked left and right before rolling forward, beeping affirmatively to the two Jedi. "R2, I need you to keep this field up, no ship's allowed in or out until we have the Viceroy and whatever he was after, got it?"

R2 beeped in understanding and quickly rolled toward a panel just next to the barrier itself.

"Now let's go, Anakin," Obi Wan said, racing for the doors end of the hangar. Obi Wan darted forward and pulled Anakin from the set of thick steel sliding doors just before they crushed him shut.

Anakin felt a chill run down his spine and he thrust his blade into the door, turning the steels around it red hot. "R2, was that you?"

R2 beeped negatively from across the hangar.

"It could have been one of the monitor droids," Obi Wan said, "they know we're here."

"Or maybe the Ravager pilot can't fly for Bantha Fodder and that would have tipped the Viceroy off to get out of here?"

Obi Wan sunk his blade into the door, helping his padawan make a hole in the door large enough for them to jump through. "Equally probable," he said, running through long, square and wide hallways. They were gray, cold, and lifeless, which made sense considering the bulk of the inhabitants on the ship.

Anakin reached into his robe pockets, pulling out a hand held, flat mic on a round disc. "Ahsoka, I need you to cover that force field, we have R2 on it but I'm afraid there's more in this fight than just the Republic and the Separatists."

The Jedi noticed that the halls grew narrower the longer they ran, wading through droids with their sabers like water in the sea. "You're talking about that Ravager?" a higher pitched, younger voice asked over his communicator. "I don't see any other pirates around, but I guess that's what we need to be afraid of."

"Exactly, padawan, also, keep an eye on the Viceroy's ship, this ship is on lockdown until we finally capture him, but if he tries to escape be ready to pursue," Anakin said, grimacing as they stopped dead at the beginning of one long hallway leading straight to the control room. It had already been blown wide open with a different kind of chaos ensuing from the small rectangular cut of the action they could see. Guarding the entrance was four copper-colored droids that sat bent in a wide stance on three legs with a wide curve that went up their back and over their beetle-like heads. They had a spindly, wiry body but with two cannon arms that sat locked and loaded. To make matters worse, each droid was covered by its own self-projecting blue energy field. "Droidekas," he spat, keeping his saber at the ready as the four droids tucked their legs and arms into their torso and fell forward, rolling toward them and closing the sixty foot gap in under a second. The Jedi flipped over the droids and turned to face them as they returned to their standing form, letting out a torrent of laser fire greater than any of the other droids on the ship.

"Let's not repeat what happened on Sankarr Torr, shall we?" Obi Wan said, jumping to the side and running on the wall. He pushed his hand out again, sending the droids spinning in their shields. "Now, Anakin!"

Anakin whipped his lightsaber, controlling its flight path with his hand through the air to cut each droid down to size as soon as their fields went down through all of the confusion. "You _really_ don't want to get stuck like that again, do you?" he chuckled, seeing his master catch his lightsaber and throw it back to him.

Obi Wan scowled. "What happened there wasn't funny, Anakin."

"It was pretty funny," Anakin said. The two Jedi lunged through the control room doorway, seeing it disheveled and in total disarray. The master cockpit was at one end of the dark, red room taken up by mostly one long black conference table, with most of its guests unconscious lying face first in their plates. On the other end was a large, flat projector showing a rotating blue hologram of a regal, old man with short hair and a beard wearing a long, gold-linked brown cape with a message over his head reading "leave a message."

"Do you see the Viceroy?" Obi Wan asked, fretfully scanning his eyes across the room and finding everyone but.

"No," Anakin said, "but the only way anyone would have escaped would have been through us."

"Stay by the door," Obi Wan said, hearing more droids run toward the control room as he darted to the cockpit. Everything had been pressed, flipped, changed, an altered, except for a tiny green button with a yellow piece of paper stuck to it reading "play" in marker. As his finger traced the word, his heart jumped with a quiet but not quiet enough sneeze. He slowly looked up, seeing the five "pirates" webbed in the ceiling. "Hello there," he said playfully, brandishing his saber as they all dropped around him. Obi Wan glanced at Anakin, hearing him outside hacking and slashing droids. Anakin slowly backed into the room, deflecting laser blasts left and right and held his hand out, pushing the horde back for a brief moment.

"General Kenobi!" the only female among their group exclaimed.

"Damn it, Star-Lord!" the short raccoon wearing an orange and blue mechanic-like jumpsuit cursed at the fair-skinned human in rugged black clothes and a red leather jacket with a red and black metal facemask. He was a bit shorter than the Jedi, but him running through his short, wavy hair and brandishing a laser pistol reminded the Jedi of the threat. "Now we gotta resort to plan B!"

"I do not wish to fight you," Obi Wan said, "and judging by the fact that you haven't taken a shot at me yet, neither do you."

Star-Lord kept his aim on the Jedi's chest. An amber-orange jewel resided in the once empty golden necklace he wore. "There are too many droids, Rocket, please tell me you came up with a plan for that too!"

Rocket scoffed. "And here I thought we were just starting to get to know each other, Star-Lord! You know what to do, Groot!"

"I am Groot," the strangest one of their group said. He was a humanoid, walking, talking tree with a spiky head of wood for a scalp and two large, shiny black eyes. He was significantly taller than the rest and spindly with wooden conglomerates for feet and hands that simply grew more twigs or branches when necessary. He aimed his hand at the cockpit and his wooden finger traveled to the cockpit to push the "play" button.

The entire ship lurched to one side from a barrage of fire from incoming support, but it was the burst of distorted music over a driving drum beat that rocked the Viceroy's ship. The gunfire driving Anakin back came to a standstill and the Jedi were assaulted with such a great ringing in their ears that the five "pirates" went to run past the disoriented general. "Walk this Way, Aerosmith, this i our 'plan B?' So you have been listening?" Star-Lord laughed over the booming guitar riff that came out of every speaker on the entire craft.

"You know how we like to listen to music while we work," Rocket chuckled, sliding under Obi Wan's legs and following his partners to the doorway the other Jedi blocked.

Anakin blocked a strong kick from the tall, green-skinned alien brunette woman with long hair who recognized the other Jedi with piercing yellow eyes. She wore a similar leather attire like Star-Lord, but she opted for a black tank top instead of a bulky, red leather jacket. It didn't help move past the Jedi, however. She threw a combo of punches that Anakin dodged, catching the last one in his hand. She winced in pain and pulled back, feeling it as if she just punched steel. Anakin switched hands with his lightsaber and pushed his free hand forward, blowing her and the raccoon behind her back into the wall. "You won't get away!" Anakin said, instead running into a vision-shaking gut punch from the gray, tattooed, musclebound man towering above all except Groot.

Anakin growled in anger and pulled the heavy hitter toward him, kicking him in the shin and using the intangible wall to send him reeling through the table. "Gamora!" he shouted to the woman trying to land a single strike on Obi Wan while he harmlessly deflected blue blasts from Star-Lord's pistol and Rocket and Groot hurriedly modified a smaller pistol in the corner. "What magic is this man using, and why I cannot see it?"

"It's called the Force, Drax," Gamora said, catching a chop to the face and kicking Obi Wan in the ribs. The force of the kick sent Obi Wan flipping onto the table. He whipped a chair into her and the gunmen but Star-Lord was quick on the draw, blasting it into a million pieces. "It already makes these dangerous Jedi even more formidable, but particularly these two have a _reputation_."

Obi Wan chuckled, spinning toward them and bouncing off Star-Lord's chest with a kick. He kicked Gamora in the side of the head and pulled Groot away from the Racoon using the Force to send him sliding across the table. "Anakin, did you hear that? We have a fan!"

Anakin winced with every punch that barely missed his head and instead left deep dents in the wall. "I'm _preoccupied_ at the moment, master!"

"Aren't you always?" Obi Wan said, flicking his hand to the side and whipping Rocket around.

"Don't get too cocky, asshole!" Rocket spat, firing a purple sparkling bolt at the Jedi.

Obi Wan flipped over it and let it hit the ceiling, but the resulting shockwave that flattened everyone to the wall gave the intruders enough time to escape. The floored Jedi quickly jumped to their feet, with Anakin outstretching his hand and slipping the amber jeweled necklace from around Star-Lord's neck as he rushed to his feet and darted out of the room under the floor-rumbling rock. The master smiled at his student. "You saw the change in the stone's ownership as well?"

"Gut feeling," Anakin said, running in front of his master after the marauders, "while big and grey was busy trying to crush my head I noticed he'd broken through a hidden, laser proof glass case, now the only issue is getting them to tell us about it!" He brought his communicator to his face. "Ahsoka, I-"

"Walk this way! Talk this way!" the communicator sang, causing the device to smoke, sputter, then pop.

Obi Wan took the necklace and darted past the pirates, dangling it at them with a wide smirk on his face. Star-Lord gasped and felt around his neck while Drax huffed heavily with a sprint that quickly closed the gap between him and Obi Wan. "I'm starting to think this ship wasn't housing the Viceroy," he said, feeling an overwhelming power when he even glanced into the center of the jewel.

"And I'm starting to think that the longer you hold that jewel, the less number of hands I will let you keep!" Rocket shouted, charging up another purple blast as the Jedi led them toward the hangars through a frenzied squad of droids with music from another world blasting through their communication devices.

"I am _Groot_!" Groot screamed, wrapping wooden tendrils around the two Jedi and hoisting them in the air as they burst into the hangar bay. They were greeted by a third Jedi wielding two lightsabers and her force of forty men in white medium armor with blue paint on their shoulder pads and the Galactic Republic's crest on the side of their white helmets with thin black visors. Their helmets covered the whole head, with the visor showing just enough for eight laser rifles each to be pointed at the five marauders' heads.

Drax charged in blind rage, with the Jedi merely pursing her pouty lips and pushing him back with the Force. "I hate that you can do these things!" Drax snapped.

"R2, get the music," the third Jedi ordered, with the bot wailing out the guitar solo from its speakers replying the best it could. She was younger than both of them, slim but athletic, with bright orange skin and a pair of small blue and white striped horns atop her head montral with three headtails, two down her shoulders and one down her back. She glared at the pirates with big, blue eyes that were innocent but her expression was such that no one would test her by stepping forward. She wore nothing that would indicate her rank, merely wearing white pants under a brown knee-high skirt, brown boots, and a brown tube top with leathery wristguards, but the warriors behind her moved and said nothing. She calmly walked up to Groot, staring into his eyes as he silently threatened to whip the two suffocating Jedi to the other side of the hangar.

"He'll do it, Jedi!" Gamora shouted. "Please let us take what we came here for, and no one will get hurt; we are not your enemy!"

She turned off her green and yellow twin laser blades and put her hand up toward Groot's head. Groot, naturally, ducked back to dodge it. She waved her hand slowly and calmly, bringing peace to the man made of bark. "You will let my masters down."

Groot stared blankly into the Jedi's eyes. "I… am… Groot…" he said as if he were entranced, dropping the Jedi hard on the ground. Anakin clutched his side in pain, shutting off his blade as well as he and Obi Wan rolled onto their backs to catch their breath.

"Thanks, Snips," Anakin groaned, rolling to his feet and shaking the wood chips off his robes.

"Did you find the Viceroy?" Ahsoka asked.

Obi Wan held the glowing stone in his hand, its power radiating from it making Ahsoka's eyes widen in awe. "He was never here."

"What is that? Some form of kyber crystal?" Ahsoka asked.

"That's why they're here," Anakin said, stepping back as Obi Wan walked up to the racoon. He put his hand up to Rocket's head in the same fashion Ahsoka did to Groot and nearly lost a finger.

"Don't try any of that magic mind melting crap on me, buddy!" Rocket spat.

"Feisty, aren't we?" Obi Wan said.

"Fuck you," Rocket exclaimed, aiming his blaster at the back of the Jedi's head and getting ten pointed at him in response.

Obi Wan walked over to Star-Lord instead, feeling the anxiety exuding from the man as he waved his hand over his face. "You will tell me who you are, why you're here, and what you planned on doing with this gem," he said with a confident smile.

Star-Lord turned to Gamora who worriedly stared at him, quickly shaking her head "no."

Star-Lord covered his mouth, but his words still were loud and clear, albeit fast. "My name is Peter Quill, I am the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy and we're stationed on a planet on the outer rim called Earth, I'm here with my team to retrieve the Infinity Stone and return it to Earth to keep it out of the wrong hands because they can take over the universe if all six are used for evil and I won't let any bad guys take the stones and if you are the bad guys then oh _god_ I am sorry and why won't I shut up-"

Obi Wan waved his hand again, sending Peter into a deep sleep. "I think we have what we need. We must bring this news to the Council at once, before the Senate catches wind of what conspired here. We will need to bring you all in so we can decide the best course of action. This vessel you broke into guards Sith Lords and Confederacy kingpins, you know."

"You do not know the power with which you are tampering with," Gamora warned, watching several troopers carry Peter off to the large, cargo-styled cruiser in front of their Ravager. "For the safety of your Galactic Republic, please just let us go."

Ahsoka gave a quick hand signal to her soldiers and the other four were shuffled into the cargo ship. "You say you're the Guardians of the Galaxy," she said, "but as far as I'm concerned, that's _our_ job."

"So what, are we your prisoners now or something?" Rocket asked, purposely jabbing the nearest trooper in the leg with his elbow.

"Actually, the opposite," Obi Wan said, "technically the only crime you've committed today was attacking a Jedi, but Anakin and I have seen worse. You'll be treated as guests."

"That is a fate worse than death!" Drax proclaimed, making Rocket put his head in his hands in embarrassment.

"I am Groot?" Groot asked curiously.

Obi Wan closed the side door to the cargo ship, joining R2 and Anakin on the walk back to their ships. R2 hopped into Anakin's ship while the padawan let out a sigh of relief. "For a minute there, I thought it was going to get pretty ugly. Ahsoka's been listening to her master."

The master clapped his student on the back, the duo entering their ships with their headsets on. "Don't get too comfortable, Anakin," he said, "the closer you two get, the more she acts like you every day."

"Imitation is the best form of flattery," Anakin chuckled.

"I too remembered when you tried to grow facial hair, just before the Clone War started," Obi Wan teased, laughing with his student and friend as they shot out into space behind Ahsoka and the self proclaimed "Guardians of the Galaxy." Still, within their laughter, an uneasy calm fell upon the wise master, silencing him quickly as he pulled out the stone again, inspecting its perfection and sickening power again before stowing it away in his pocket. He felt disturbed, moved, but most importantly unbalanced, as a feeling indescribable by him swept through the cockpit was moved by the same Force that guided his ship and blade.

The silence from his master's ship worried the padawan, but a similar unease greeted him the moment they left the battlefield. "You feel it too, Master?"

Obi Wan couldn't quite place it, but there was one thing he could say to address it. "I have a bad feeling about this."

 **THOUGHTS ON THE GUARDIANS? WHAT WOULD THE VICEROY NEED WITH AN INFINITY STONE?**


	3. Avenging an Old Age

"Coruscant inbound," an intercom from the cockpit of the cargo ship the "guests" were being transferred in said. The sound of the first word made Rocket's tail tuck between his legs.

"I am Groot?" Groot asked, seeing his friend's shaking discomfort.

"Stay quiet," Gamora hissed under her breath.

"It's hotter than Drax's balls," Rocket whispered.

"Shut up," Star-Lord snapped under his breath.

"Yes Rocket, you shut up," Drax spat, "you would not know how hot nor cold my testicles

The cargo hold was suffocating and hot in the silence, with all of the white and black troopers sweaty and stinking from other battles throughout the day. Rocket sniffed in the air, growling at it as his nose shriveled. "Holy _fuck_."

"Quiet," one trooper ordered.

"Oh can it G.I. Joe," Rocket fired back, "I'll rattle your head around in that helmet like a ping pong ball in a bucket."

The trooper slowly looked down at his prisoner. "I'd watch your mouth, if I were you."

"Then watch closely," Rocket said, taking in a deep breath.

"Fives," Ahsoka said in her communicator on her arm, "please route some air conditioning into the cargo hold, we have a flower that needs to be kept from wilting."

A chuckle went around the soldiers with a blast of cool air, but Rocket was still hot headed. "The only person here who's ten colors and built like a twig is you, horns, so don't talk plants with me."

"I am Groot," Groot said grumpily, glaring at the Jedi.

"Yeah!" Rocket said in agreement, feeling a thud as the ship landed.

"Docked and loaded," Fives said, getting groans around the ship. "Permission to unload, Captain Rex?"

A trooper with a yellow and black shoulder pad spoke into his helmet. "Permission granted on the condition that you are forbidden from making that kind of pun again."

The hold opened and the Guardians' escort squad and Jedi leader moved them outside of the ship. Star-Lord marveled at the sight around him: every building was a skyscraper, downtown city as far as the eye could see, and the kind of flying ship traffic in the sky with several layers that he had never seen this advanced before. What surprised him most was the diversity of the planet, even the docking platform they stood on had men and women of all different alien species in plain, brown robes, or more colorful, fancier garments that he only imagined belonged to some of the galaxy's finest politicians and nobility. The ones wearing the simpler robes reminded him of the clothes Obi-Wan wore earlier, so it would make escaping much harder with this many Jedi around. "Good news," Ahsoka said, leading them up a flight of stairs and into a giant temple with blue and gold carpet. Statues of men and women in the plain robes adorned the long hallways, and their descendants walked them.

"We're fucked…" Rocket whispered to Gamora. "You know what my bounty is in this system?"

"Maybe you should not mention your high bounty here out loud," Drax said, out loud, drawing the eyes of every nearby Jedi onto them, "especially in the system crawling with Jedi and that seats the Senate."

"I am Groot," Groot grumbled.

"It'd be in everyone's best interest if you were to stay quiet," Ahsoka warned them, leading them to an elevator too small for the entire entourage. "I'll take it from here."

She led the Guardians of the Galaxy into the podular elevator with a glass window facing the outside. The sight made Star-Lord gasp, seeing the evening skyline that crushed New York's and Chicago's gleaming as the sun set behind it. "I love this view too," Ahsoka said, turning to Rocket with a smirk, "but it's best if we all view it from behind the glass."

Rocket blinked. "...what?"

Ahsoka made a pulling gesture, yanking a small pistol from the raccoon's hands through the air. She examined the firearm with a grin. "A T-39 snubnosed Greldknob, huh?"

"It's for self defense," he spat.

"It's for glass," Ahsoka said, "I might be young, but I'm not stupid." The elevator opened to a long hallway with a red and gold carpet and statued pillars on either side depicted Jedi of an older republic. "Follow me." She led them down the long hall, traveling up a short staircase to a tall, open door. "Wait," she said.

"Whaddya mean, wait?" Rocket spat.

"Shh! Be quiet!" Ahsoka hissed, listening in. Anakin stood in the center of 11 Jedi masters, including Obi-Wan, visibly annoyed.

"We can't keep hiding these operations from the Chancellor," Anakin argued, "how is he going to support our case in the Senate if we keep these matters under wraps?"

"The Senate has made it evident that they wish to keep their distance from the Order," a familiar authoritative voice said, "and it has always been the custom that our relationship to them is on a 'need to know' basis."

"Is that…" Star-Lord whispered, trying to look over Ahsoka's horns. "Nick Fury?"

"Shh!" Ahsoka hissed again.

"You think that a dreadnought carrying a glowing stone isn't strange enough for a government-backed investigation, master?" Anakin asked.

"As troubling and strange as it seems," 'Nick Fury' said, "if we involve the Chancellor this early into any investigations the _Jedi_ will carry out it will potentially derail any progress we make to connecting the stone to the Separatists. The Senate will turn this into yet another witch hunt- we don't want a repeat of Geonosis."

"We simply need more information on these Infinity Stones before we move forward with any investigations," Obi Wan said. "We know the Chancellor has selected you to act as the go-between, but this is a Jedi matter until we have a reason to involve the Senate."

Anakin let out a deep breath. "All I'm saying is that public support for the Jedi has been steadily decreasing since the start of the Clone Wars and the Senate mirrors the thoughts of the people- the more we collaborate, the better."

"In due time, we will," an older, calm man's voice said with a gruff but kind tone. "More to learn, we have. Teach us, our visitors will."

Anakin turned toward the entrance to the meeting room, seeing Ahsoka and the Guardians of the Galaxy waiting. It was clear he seemed cornered by the other Jedi, but he hid the anger behind it well. "Padawan."

"Take a seat, young Skywalker," Nick Fury said, earning a respectful bow from the young Jedi who took his place among the council of 12. The Guardians entered the room. It was bright and warm, the pink and orange sky playing off the dark red curtains on the twelve pillars holding up the round room, the wide, spotless windows in the back showing the other side of the city with the setting sun making the rooftops shine. It wasn't as grand as the other view, but a pretty sight nonetheless. The floor had three circles, the outermost a warm brown where the 12 red, cushioned seats of the Jedi sat in a circle looking inward on the second beige circle where Ahsoka and the 'visitors' stood, finally a periwinkle circle in the center with a white, feathery star directly under a domed ceiling with intricate and foreign writings and designs.

"For a room dedicated to getting shit done," Rocket whispered, "it looks awfully comfortable."

"I am Groot," Groot whispered in accordance.

"Good evening, masters," Ahsoka said, standing in the center, "I would like to introduce the self-proclaimed 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' originating from the outer rim planet, Earth."

"The planet with the child Master Yoda sensed?" Obi Wan said with a chuckle. "Well, isn't that convenient."

"The Sith reaching him first, I fear," the small, wise old master in brown and beige robes with the kind voice from earlier said, using the Force to levitate the stone above his hand. "Spotted recently, Bane was, escaping from the Outer Rim." He had a walking stick propped up by his tiny chair, his green, wrinkled skin and scraggly, thin gray hair making him appear more frail than he really was. He had a stern, pensive expression on his face, his soft, greenish gold eyes scanning the room as if looking through their souls. "Secure this planet, we must." His big, pointed ears on the side of his head and the three, stubby digits on his hands and feet offset the reverence the other Jedi in the room had toward him. "But at hand, other matters are."

Drax scoffed. "What's the puppet doing here?"

Gamora wanted to die, while Peter and Rocket swallowed a laugh. Ahsoka's face turned white. "I'll… leave you to that, masters," she said, quickly evacuating herself from the battleground.

The entire demeanor of the room changed starkly, with the hair on the back of Drax's standing on end from the glares he received from the 12 Jedi. "He is Grand Master Yoda," Nick Fury said venomously, "and you _will_ treat him with the utmost respect." 'Nick' was a man of great height and stature, a muscular, lean, bald, dark-skinned human with fierce brown eyes and a stern scowl that made him appear intimidating. It was obvious he was a man you did not want to pick a fight with.

Gamora's eyes pooled with apprehension, hearing his voice. "Mace… Windu?"

Star-Lord saw the fear in her face and heeded it carefully. He'd ask about it later.

"Master Kenobi," Mace Windu said, "would you and Knight Anakin please relay what you found on the dreadnought?"

"Certainly," Obi Wan said, "it started out as a response to a lead we had on Nute Gunray's whereabouts, naturally we prepared for a fight and that's what we got- however we did not expect a dreadnought to be housing him. Upon charging the ship, our signals were scrambled by our visitors. We entered the dreadnought after them and ran to the control room, all escape pods were still docked, all their fighters were engaged, and after a brief scuffle with them, Anakin came upon the stone."

"Star Lord described it as containing the power to take control of the universe when combined with the other five stones," Anakin said, "and their mission was to return it to Earth to keep it out of the wrong hands."

"So then you believe they acted in good faith," a tall, pale-skinned, old and lanky master said, stroking his short, white beard pensively. He had yellow tall, elongated head, appearing as if he had a second brain on top of the first.

"Yes, I do, Master Ki-Adi-Mundi," Anakin said, leaning forward in his chair and staring at Rocket, "maybe some of them are not used to doing so, but it seemed as if they were just doing their job."

"Raised, an interesting question has," Yoda said.

"Whose hands are you keeping the stones out of?" Mace Windu asked.

The Guardians shifted uncomfortably. "Well," Star-Lord said, "I think that kind of question requires-"

"My father," Gamora cut in, stepping forward.

The Jedi sat back while the other Guardians started to sweat. Rocket shook his head. "What the hell are you-"

"Quiet," Mace Windu said, opening the floor to Gamora. "Speak."

Gamora surveyed the room. "I am Gamora, daughter of the tyrant known as Thanos. The Jedi were familiar with my father's family- in the days of the old republic, the Jedi defeated his grandfather, Kronos, who actively aided Darth Revan and Darth Malak during the Jedi Civil War."

Yoda, Mace Windu, Obi Wan, and Anakin all exchanged wary glances. "I'm not saying I don't believe you," Obi Wan said, "but the Jedi Civil War was meticulously documented. Nothing in the records mentions 'Kronos' as not even once."

Gamora continued her case. "Maybe not your records, but I read mine before I escaped his grasp," she said, "Kronos fed them ships, men, and weapons anonymously, with promises of expanding the Sith Empire past the Outer Rim. When the Republic won, Kronos withdrew from our galaxy. He knew it wasn't wise to take on the Republic then."

"Then what makes it wise for him to attack us now?" Anakin asked. "We're at the peak of our power, the Republic is."

"And our discord," Mace rebutted, "so what you're telling us is that Thanos is aiding the Sith Lords and Count Dooku in destroying the Republic, again?"

"What does this have to do with the Infinity Stones?" Anakin asked.

"Thanos has no opposition," Gamora said, "Earth has set him back, but I'm coming to you from a humble position. He fears you because the Force gives you the power to wield the Infinity Stones, but in his hands he will destroy you, the Republic, and anything else that stands in his way. He knows the Clone Wars have divided you, and he plans on cutting you right down the middle, himself."

"Gamora, come on, we got a Hulk," Rocket said, "if we bait him into coming to Earth he'll be tying his own noose."

"No, Rocket," Gamora said, defeated. "We need their help. Stark's a brilliant man, but there's a reason Thanos owns every adjacent galaxy to ours." She turned back to the Jedi, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small, thumb drive-like device. "I can show you any proof you need, but keep that Stone protected. As much as Earth would hate taking part in this circus of a Senate, they are the only ones who will help you defeat my father, but they would easily be overrun by a Separatist attack."

"If the Separatists had one in a dreadnought by itself," Obi Wan said, "it's safe to say they know of its importance."

"Then you think the Separatists know of this Thanos, then?" Mace Windu asked.

"Determine that now, we cannot," Yoda said, cutting through the back-and-forth. "Action on this must be taken still, with our other troubles."

"If Thanos is as fortified as you say, it would certainly spell doom for our forces to spread them thinner, if we do not strategize carefully," an orange, amphibious Jedi master said through a gray breathing mask. He was tall and lanky with rigid, orange, ear-like protrusions on the side of his head and gray mesh over his two large eyes as another protective measure.

"Master Plo Koon, correct are you always," Yoda said, gesturing to a tall, dark-skinned Jedi with long black hair, brown eyes, white horns and white, pointed studs on his forehead "as for the records, Master Agen Kolar to confirm Gamora's claims he will."

"What about the child, Master Yoda?" a reptilian master with a long beak, yellow slits for eyes and greenish-yellow skin asked.

"See to it personally, I will, Master Kcaj," Yoda said. "Master Saesee Tiin will take my place for the younglings, until my return."

"Going that far into the Outer Rim would place a target on your head, Master," Saesee replied. He was a lean and muscular with beige skin and two horns jutting down and forward from the side of his head.

"I agree with Master Tiin," a tall, green, muscular master with frog-like, black eyes and long, green tentacles protruding from his head like hair said with a deep voice that reminded Peter of a Jamaican accent, "for you to go alone would put the entire order in jeopardy."

Yoda chuckled. "Never alone, with the Force, I will be."

"Master Yoda never said he would go alone," a tall, shapely, beautiful Jedi with stunning indigo eyes, dark skin, and white and turquoise tentacled headdress said, "going to Earth opens the opportunity for two objectives, securing the child, and securing the planet."

"Just what I was thinking, Master Allie," the last member on the Jedi Council said. She was tall and slender, the same species as Ahsoka with red skin and blue and white horns, except she was older and wiser with a quietly fierce aura about her. "Perhaps Master Obi Wan and his padawan should go? They have been the most intimate with Bane and Dooku, should either of them attempt to interfere."

"Perhaps I should go with Yoda instead, Master Shaak Ti," Mace Windu said to her, "Obi Wan's diplomacy skills are invaluable, however given the situation we must _only_ rely on diplomacy unless it is dire."

Anakin shot a glare at the second-in-command and sat back in the chair, turning to Obi Wan and cocking an eyebrow. "Your absence would not go unnoticed by the Separatists, Master Windu," Anakin said, "remember, it was you on Geonosis who chased the Count away from the fight in the first place. With you gone, we'd most certainly receive an attack right at home."

Mace turned to object but Yoda spoke first. "Young Skywalker is correct," Yoda said, "invaluable, your presence here is, Master Windu. I will handle the child, they will sway the leadership."

Master Windu looked like he wanted to argue, but he had faith in the Grand Master. He turned back to Gamora. "Then it's settled."

A sigh of relief swept through the Guardians. "Thank you, master Jedi."

"Does this mean we can leave now?" Rocket spat.

"Master Kolar will accompany you to Master Jocasta Nu, they will help cross reference your history with ours," Mace Windu said. "As for the rest of you, privates will be here soon to take you to your quarter, but just remember- you are in the center of Republic, _Jedi_ presence. Watch your mouths, but more importantly your hands, are we clear?"

"Got it," Peter said.

"I am watching them right now," Drax said, looking at his hands, "they do not seem to be very interesting."

"I am Groot," Groot said with a nod.

"Aye aye, Mister Milk Dud," Rocket said, getting his tiny foot stomped on by Gamora. "Ouch!"

"One question," Peter said, "where's the bathroom?"

Anakin popped a smirk, the rest didn't find it funny. "In your quarters," Master Windu said.

"Master Ti," Yoda said, passing the Infinity Stone to her. "Place this in our archives, you must."

Shaak Ti stood up and bowed. "I'll make sure the knights patrolling know of its importance."

"Meeting adjourned," Yoda said. All 12 Jedi stood up, with some shuffling toward the exit. Four soldiers rushed in, shepherding the Guardians "Obi Wan, Anakin," he said, hobbling out of his chair and pulling his walking stick to him through the air. "We will leave at once," he announced. "No longer can we leave this war's fate up to chance, already lost, we might have."

"Gamora was pretty forthcoming with information about the stone," Anakin said, "if this Earth is already unified against Thanos, then we will be there to help you secure the child in no time."

"Don't be so sure," Obi Wan said with caution, "a bit of resistance to forming an alliance with the Republic recently is normal. I wonder why Earth has been this quiet to us, if they are mobilizing against Thanos as suggested."

"Then go we must," Yoda said, turning to Mace Windu who watched a small hologram recording of the meeting that just occurred, keeping it for their references.

"Master Yoda," he said. "I take it you will leave as soon as possible."

"Keep the academy safe," Yoda said. "Return soon, I shall."

Windu nodded to the three Jedi about to embark on a trip to the outer rim, a planet sitting on the cusp of the unknown. "May the Force be with you," he said, watching the three Jedi leave the council, where it was safest.

* * *

 **THERE YOU HAVE IT**

 **SO NOW THERE ARE THREE THINGS GOIN ON**

 **YODA IS GOING TO TRY TO FIND THE CHILD**

 **OBI WAN AND ANAKIN ARE GOING TO LEARN ABOUT EARTH, ITS GOV'T, AND SECURE THE PLANET**

 **GUARDIANS CHILLING ON CORUSCANT AND COLLABING W THE JEDI TO LEARN ABOUT THANOS**

 **WHICH ARE YOU THE MOST EXCITED FOR?**

 **REVIEW!**


	4. Defending Our Own

**HI**

 **I'M BACK**

 **I WAS GOING TO DO A MULTI CHAPTER THING LIKE THE OTHERS BUT I'M STILL TWEAKING CH 5 AND 6**

 **ENJOY**

* * *

"Time to waste, there is not," Yoda said, hobbling through the crowded and buzzing hangar crawling with soldiers to the row of ships belonging to the Jedi Council. "We must reach the child before the Sith."

"Indeed, Master Yoda," Obi-Wan said, keeping his brisk pace with Anakin by his side. "Anakin, back into the uncharted and unknown we go, yes?"

Anakin chuckled, stopping at his ship. "Let's not get captured in front of Master Yoda this time, okay?"

Yoda looked up at his ship, smaller than Obi-Wan and Anakin's to resemble his stature. It was a gray, podular cockpit with two bulky wings each noticeably lacking equipped firepower like his companions' ships. Yoda crouched, and with a jump of great speed and agility for his age, he landed in the pilot seat. "I have heard much of your synergy as a team," he said, "balanced in the Force, you are."

"We plan on keeping our Council's good name," Obi-Wan said, closing his cockpit and flipping all switches.

"You ready, R2?" Anakin asked the droid, receiving excited beeps. Anakin put on his headset. "We're all set, send us out, Captain."

The hangar door warning lights flashed yellow as they parted, revealing a second, blue barrier than tinted Coruscant's pink and orange sunset over the vibrant skyline. Flying cars and their passengers of all colors, forms, shapes, and sizes moved through the sky in loosely organized lines, with the buildings rising high above the clouds acting as guidelines for the lanes of traffic as well as their intersections. "May the Force be with you," Rex's voice said over their intercoms, dropping the shield long enough for them to rocket out and burst high into the sky. The sunset faded to black within seconds as they shot into the vast expanse of space, leaving home behind for the final frontier.

"Anakin, do you have the coordinates for this 'Earth?'" Obi-Wan asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Anakin said, seeing the map on a panel by his armrests.

"Because the last time I fully trusted you with knowing where we were going, we ended up stranded on Jakku gambling for our ships." Obi-Wan smirked at his audible sigh. "I'm just checking so we all go the right way."

"It's not my fault you couldn't figure out Master Qui Gon's dice trick," Anakin said.

"Then on my point, you will follow," Yoda said amusedly, chuckling quietly under his breath. "Younglings..."

Anakin read the flight time under the map. "I hope you both are comfortable, masters," he said, putting on autopilot and leaning back. "This is going to be a long trip."

"Then we must go back," Yoda said sternly, making the two Knights' eyes widen in concern.

"Master Yoda?" Obi-Wan said.

"Go before the trip, I did not," Yoda said, leading the ships back to Coruscant. "We must not take a detour, lest we wish to embarrass ourselves."

The three Jedi took off again on their second outing, with the soft rocking of the ship lulling the ancient master to sleep as well after what seemed like countless hours of sailing among the stars. R2 beeped as they rounded an icy dwarf planet, awaking Anakin who had dozed off just minutes before. "R2, there's nothing on the scanners," Anakin said groggily, sitting up in his chair and looking at the map. It was a surprise that they made it to the Outer Rim without being heckled, but R2's frantic beeping gave Anakin the feeling that their luck had just run out. "Master Obi-Wan," Anakin said, "R2 is swearing that there are other spacecraft approaching us just beyond this small asteroid field."

"So is R4," Obi-Wan said, "but my radar is showing nothing."

The three pilots took the helms again, passing through the field with ease. "Their infrared scanners must be picking up on a heat signature not far from here," Anakin said.

"No, we are not alone," Yoda said, "what you think, hear, or see that shrouds itself from the light, the Force will uncover."

They shot out from the asteroid field and before their eyes, at least twenty black ships blinked onto their radar and into their line of sight. "Impossible," Anakin exclaimed, "I built the tracking systems for these ships myself, there's no way a fleet that size would have just slipped by."

"I don't think they care who built what, Padawan," Obi-Wan said, tapping a blue button on his panel. "Requesting clearance for correspondence, please respond when you receive this-"

"Well, well!" a man with a gruff, Southern accent said haughtily over the communicators. "What are you three pretty boys doin' all the way out here in the Outer Rim, are y'all lost or somethin'?"

Anakin noticed the insignia on the side of every wing, picturing an outline of a shouting man's blue head with a short, red Mohawk. "Just passing through," Obi-Wan said, with a growing voice telling him that they weren't going to let them do just that, "you just surprised us, that's all."

"We were waitin' for somebody else," the fleet leader said, "somebody who took somethin' from me."

"Well, that's unfortunate," Obi-Wan said, "I do hope that you regain what you lost, and wish you all the best."

The fleet leader chuckled mischievously. "That's mighty kind of you, stranger, but maybe you can help me out," he said. The trio of Jedi gripped their controls, noticing wing cannons presenting themselves on every member of the ragtag troupe. "Accordin' to what my boy Kraglin sees here hackin' into your mission feed, you and my target ran into each other quite a bit today, _Jedi_. You took 'em in too," he laughed. "I thought y'all were supposed to be smart."

Obi-Wan glanced at Anakin through their helms, with Anakin's thumbs dancing on top of the blaster buttons. "If you want to head to our point of origin, feel free," he said, "but we have no quarrel with you."

"There's a toll for passin' through these parts," he said, "blasters, lightsabers- just them fancy Kyber Crystals though- and whatever you got in your pockets. If you don't pay, you'll get hurt, understand?"

Anakin rolled his eyes, setting his targets on the center ship. "We're not going to fight you," Obi-Wan said.

"Looks like we're gonna hurt you, and then rob you," he said with glee, "and Jedi?"

All of the blasters were focused on the three Jedi ships.

"Nobody just _passes through_ my turf," he said, "when ya get back home, tell all those uppity robed pieces o' shit that Yondu and the Ravagers told ya to stay the hell away from the Outer Rim!"

"Master Yoda," Anakin said, "please, go find the boy. Master Obi-Wan and I will handle this."

"Abandon you, I will not," Yoda stated, holding out his hand toward the fleet.

"Light 'em up, boys!" Yondu shouted.

"Incoming!" Obi-Wan exclaimed. "Shields up!"

R2 and R4 followed their commands, bracing the ships for impact with a blue glow they transmitted around the spacecrafts. Forty cannons fired their lasers, but with a closing of Yoda's little, three-fingered hand, the beams stopped cold. Silence lingered over the communication channels as Yoda sailed fast. "Move quickly," Yoda said plainly.

Anakin watched the grandmaster fly over the Ravagers who continued trying to fire, the intensity of the laser backup growing brighter with every passing second. "That's amazing, Master Yoda!"

"You can tell him when we get there," Obi-Wan said, "we don't want a firefight on our hands."

Anakin scoffed. " _You_ don't."

They shot after Yoda as the beams released onto each other, converging into one blinding light that made Yondu grunt in pain. "Get the bastards, we'll have to pick up my boy ourselves from that shitty rock!"

"What's stopping them from chasing us all the way to Earth?" Anakin asked.

Obi-Wan looked in his rearview, seeing three Ravager ships accelerate toward them and leaving the others in the dust. "If these Guardians of the Galaxy are from there, they would have set up an ambush there, not here."

"They're gaining on us," Anakin said suggestively.

"Engage, we will not," Yoda said, officially putting his little foot down. "The path of peace, the Jedi will always choose to take."

"I'm just-" Anakin jolted up in his ship with a bolt to the back. "-saying!"

"Make the jump to hyperspace, you must," Yoda ordered, quickly tapping his panel before a shot nearly threw him headfirst into the glass.

Anakin and Obi-Wan watched Yoda's ship stretch from the front as if one end was moving faster than another, and in a blink the ship was gone. They pressed the same button while R2 screamed under fire. "Y'all can't escape me that easy!" Yondu shouted, vanishing behind the Jedi and leaving his fleet behind.

The three Jedi continued traveling at that speed, looking back and seeing streaks of white light in their cameras for millions of miles in mere minutes. Obi-Wan sighed in relief. "That could have gone better."

"I don't think it's over just yet, Master," Anakin said, "one of the Ravagers made the jump into hyperspace right as we did. We're going to need a couple seconds to get our shields back up once we jump out."

"Ravagers?" Yoda said curiously. "Know them, do you?"

Anakin's face hardened at the thought. "They were a group of bandits that hopped around the Outer Rim, they didn't do much back then, I wouldn't be surprised if they are still the same bunch of bullies now that they were proud of being back then."

They lurched forward as they hovered over their destination, a fairly sized planet with green land masses spread out by large, blue oceans and icy poles. Yoda tilted his head back, letting out a satisfied hum. "Strong in the Force, this place is," Yoda said with a small smile.

"Yeehaw!" Yondu shouted, forcing the three Jedi to watch him come out of hyperspace firing everything he had.

Obi-Wan and Anakin both took shot after shot, not being able to out maneuver his homing lasers fast enough. "We're going to have to land immediately!" Obi-Wan said. "R4, how much longer on that shield?"

Anakin barrel rolled out of several blasts and turned around on Yondu's ship, firing several shots back. "Young Skywalker, no!" Yoda shouted, taking a direct hit himself. "Reach the surface, we must!"

"He's going to kill us, Master Yoda!" Anakin said, his frustration growing as his direct hits bounced off the side of Yondu's shield.

"I won't," Yondu said, "but this might."

With a push of a button, Yondu's red shield burst like a grenade all around him, damaging the Jedi wings and engines from the impact. "Everything is down, R4!" Obi-Wan exclaimed.

"You three wanna go to that rock so badly?" Yondu shouted. "I'll send you there alright!"

One of Yoda's thrusters ignited uncontrollably from the sparking, sputtering damage left from the blast, the other two Jedi helpless as their master suddenly rocketed around the globe. "Master Yoda, please respond," Anakin said with worry, receiving only static.

"That attack destroyed his communication signal," Obi-Wan said, "we'll have to find him when we get on the ground."

"Seems like the little one was a bit eager, don't be nervous, you two!" Yondu taunted, watching them slip into Earth's gravitational field. "Mama Terra's gonna give you a push."

Obi-Wan and Anakin did their best to stay calm and collected in their free fall, trying to reboot every system they could while R2 and R4's lights were out. "Come on, R4," Obi-Wan pleaded, seeing R2's lights flash brightly in the black, starry skies to boot up Anakin's shields as they approached a dark, forested mountain dangerously quickly. "No time for dramatics, we're about to be Bantha fodder in a minute if you don't-" Obi-Wan winced from a blinding light surging from his panels all roaring back to life at the same time. "You're not going to like this." He yanked the controls back, his thrusters giving him just enough power to destroy miles of trees while Anakin passed over him for a much smoother crash landing.

Anakin leaped out of his ship that had landed with a crunch from the snow underneath and darted through the fallen, scorched and broken deadwood to his master's ship. "Come on, R2!" he shouted back, coming upon the wreck of his master's ship with R2 rolling behind him. Outside of the wing, R2 was just a little taller than Yoda, rolling on two wheels attached to arm-like extensions and one wheel attached under his small, white and blue, pill-shaped body. Anakin looked inside the cockpit, seeing Obi-Wan leaning back in his chair with an exhausted yet surprised look plastered on his red face. The door opened with a hiss of the airlock. "Are you alright?"

Obi-Wan ran his hand through his own hair and smiled at his Padawan out of stress. "Another happy landing," he said, climbing out of the ship. "R4, how are you holding up?"

R4 let out a sad beep, moving his head from left to right.

"Don't worry, little one," Obi-Wan reassured him, "we'll patch you right up and find Master Yoda in no time." His expression soured, with fears of the worst crossing his mind. "However, this is exactly why the Council was wary of him coming in the first place."

"For once I agree with Master Windu," Anakin said dryly, pulling out a handheld device displaying a hologram of the planet, "but you remember Geonosis. That ship practically folded itself in half and Yoda came out with only a scratch."

"What are you doing?" Obi-Wan asked, watching Anakin set two red dots on the hologram of Earth and drawing a red line from the dots across the planet.

"Drawing a trajectory map," Anakin said, "we'll just be wasting time if we don't have a clear idea of where he went."

"I'll see what I can do for my ship," Obi-Wan said, cringing to himself from the branches tearing through the exposed wiring on the body and the wings. "It might not be fully operational, but I can get it in the air."

R2 beeped loudly in warning, drawing the two Jedis' attention to the sky. Anakin pulled out his lightsaber, turning it on and brandishing it apprehensively. "Looks like the welcome crew is here already, unusual for Outer Rim planets." A red and gold, humanoid robot soaring above them with rockets from his hands and feet locked its blue slits for eyes with Obi-Wan below.

"It looks like a battle droid," Obi-Wan said, "or a bounty hunter of some sort."

"Either way, if it's coming to scavenge, it's going to have one hell of a hard time doing it," Anakin said, taking a fighting stance as it touched down in front of them. "This is _exactly_ why I left the Outer Rim and never went back."

"Not because you were a Jedi, or anything like that?" Obi-Wan said, pulling out two small white strips with clamps in the middle. "Put this on."

"You're going to talk to the droid?" Anakin said, taking one of the strips and fastening it on the inside of his mouth.

"Of course," Obi-Wan said, "if nothing else we can find out where we are and the quickest path to civilisation so we can get parts to repair my ship."

"If there is civilization here," Anakin said, "it's the _Outer Rim_ , I don't expect much."

The robot stood to full height, made up of gleaming red and gold plates of armor and a shining, triangular core in its chest with a scowl etched on its golden face. "I see the little devices of yours work," he said with a shockingly human voice. "I don't know what this Outer Rim is, but you're one to talk about civilization if your first move against a stranger is to pull out your glorified butter knife."

Obi-Wan eyed him curiously, stepping in between the stranger and his Padawan. "My apologies, my partners and I crashed here by accident, naturally we're a bit disoriented by the entire ordeal."

"Partners?" the robot said. "There's more than just you two?"

"We had a third," Obi-Wan said, "he was shot down by pirates like the two of us. We need to fix our ships so we can find him, it's imperative that we do."

The android looked toward the wreck and down at the blue and white droid behind Anakin's leg. "Why were you around to get shot down in the first place?"

This droid was highly advanced, Obi-Wan realized. "We are here on business from the Galactic Republic's Jedi Council," he said with a diplomatic smile, "not to sound cliche, but we mean you no harm."

"Jedi, you say?" the android said. "You guys were here already a few weeks ago. My associates and I have actually been waiting to speak with you."

The two Jedi looked at each other warily and back to the man of steel. "This the first contact the Republic has had with this planet, whatever it is that greeted you then was not a Jedi."

"There was a kid," he said with growing bitterness in his voice, "a 'Jedi' broke into his parents' house and snatched him right out of his bed, he tried to kill the entire family before running like a coward and we took the kid back." He raised his hand at the two Jedi. "If you wanna prove yourself, you'll come with me."

"Attacking a Jedi is a direct violation of Galactic law," Obi-Wan said, "we would gladly clear anything up, but we need to find the third member of our party as soon as possible."

"If we cared about Galactic law then we wouldn't have kicked your buddy's ass, there is no 'Galactic law' here," the droid said. His hands started to glow bright white with a high-pitched humming indicating that he could fire at any moment. "I'm not in the mood to ask twice."

Obi-Wan whipped around as the robot flew backward into a tree. "Anakin!"

"He was going to fire at you!" Anakin shouted.

"If you had let me at least _attempt_ a Jedi mind trick-" A blast at Obi-Wan's feet knocked the Jedi to the ground. He rose again with his lightsaber drawn and the teacher and student stood side by side against the floating mechanical menace.

"Now I'm a little annoyed," he said, "I never said I wouldn't help you find the third member of your space monk brigade, but as far as 'Jedis' go, we have issues we need to settle before we let you traipse around the planet again. Don't make me do this."

"You don't understand the severity of losing our companion," Obi-Wan said sternly, "unless he's with us, we're not going with you."

The droid sighed. "You're making me do this."

Anakin spun his blade as the stranger's hands began to hum again. "Aren't you supposed to be the negotiator, Obi-Wan?"

Both sides stopped cold as a flying red and white striped shield with a white star on a blue center cut through the middle of the fight, followed by a glowing gray hammer striking the ground with blue lightning to knock all three of the warriors back. "Friendly fire, guys!" the stranger shouted, rolling to his feet. The shield bounced off the tree, coming back to the hand of a tall, muscular, fair-skinned soldier in a blue combat suit with the same white star on his chest and a white "A" on the forehead of his mask. He wore brown, leather gloves and brown combat boots with steel toes that looked like they would hurt.

"Sorry about that, Tony," the soldier said, "why are you fighting Jehovah's Witnesses?"

"These guys are more Jedi, Steve," Tony said.

"Like the ones who tried to steal the child?" a deep, heroic voice from above said. The Jedi looked up at their third opponent, a tall, muscular, and glowing mountain of muscle in gray plate and chain link armor with a flowing red cape. His eyes were blue like the lightning that crackled around his hammer that flew to his hand, his long, blond hair flowing from the static.

"They say the guy who came to us wasn't one of theirs, Thor," Tony said, "I asked them to come with us back to base so we can talk, they said no dice without their third man and the one in the black pushed the air at me."

Thor landed next to them. "It's going to take a little more than air to put us down."

"Is this 'Tony' your droid?" Anakin asked.

Tony laughed. "Now you're just asking for it," he said, "I'm a guy in a suit just trying to defend my home, what's your trash can's excuse?"

R2 beeped in offense, bumping the back of Anakin's leg for him to do something. "That insult's probably the worst you can do."

Obi-Wan attempted to be the voice of reason one last time. "It doesn't need to end like-" He leaned back on instinct, feeling the wind off Steve's shield as it flew overhead. He caught it with the Force and threw it back at Steve, darting forward and bringing his saber down hard on the shield. Both men were surprised at the clash, with Steve feeling the heat of the blade through his gloves and Obi-Wan shocked that the saber didn't cut through it like butter.

Anakin rushed the other two head on, sliding under a hammer swing and slashing at his armor. Thor did little more than wince at the sting of it grazing his ankle, turning around and punching the young Jedi dead in the chest. Tony stood over him, opening his hand. "It's over, kid."

Anakin "pushed the air" again, sending Thor high into the sky and crashing him through the trees. "I'm just getting started, tin can."

Obi-Wan pushed Tony into the rocks and Steve into the bushes. "Don't breathe just yet," Obi-Wan said, standing back to back with his Padawan as the three Earthlings surrounded him. "If you had spent less time trash talking and more training, you would have dodged that punch."

"I too can call upon powers from the other realm, well-bearded man," Thor said, raising his hammer and summoning lightning down to separate the Jedi. This time Obi-Wan faced Tony and Thor, working double time to deflect laser blasts into Thor while dodging lightning. Obi-Wan and Thor locked weapons momentarily, creating bright sparks in the center of the clash. A metal kick from Tony sent the Jedi rolling through the snow, but the older gentleman was as resilient as he was skillful.

"Your old man's pretty fast," Steve said to Anakin, dodging several slashes and blocking one, slipping underneath the blade to deliver a vision shaking uppercut. "Where are you guys from?"

"He's not my father," Anakin said, pushing back a shield bash and kicking the inside of Steve's thigh. A punch to his face sounded like steel hitting bone, but the Earthling wasn't fazed. "And I'm from Tatooine," he said with grit, making Steve tumble back with a Force push. The Jedi yanked him toward his blade again, this time taking a hard kick to the chest. "Why do you care?"

Steve bounced on his toes, beckoning Anakin forward again. "I just assure myself of something," he said, whipping the shield over his head. Anakin ducked the first time but missed as it returned, knocking him face first into Steve's fist to knock him out cold. "I assure myself that the toughest kids are from New York," he said, running to help his friends getting thrown around the forest. "You got heart, kid!"

Obi-Wan's eyes shifted to all three opponents, dodging the hammer to let it hit Tony in the chest while ducking Steve's shield to send it into Thor instead. Obi-Wan rushed toward Tony, deflecting beam after beam before flattening him to a rock with his hand. "I don't want to fight you-" He gasped, leaning back and catching the hammer by its handle in his hand.

Thor's face went white as the Jedi carried it for an entire second, the color returning with the hammer suddenly sinking in the snow and taking Obi-Wan down with it. "Stop!" he shouted, pulling the hammer to his hand. "Enough of this!"

Tony and Steve pulled their punches, and Obi-Wan didn't take advantage, simply holding his stance. "What is it, Thor?" Steve asked.

"This man's goals may differ from our own but if he can carry Mjolnir even for a moment then this man's heart is righteous!" Thor said. "If this man says that the cretin who attempted to take one of our own was not a Jedi then I will vouch for him!"

Obi-Wan put away his lightsaber first, catching his breath and looking at his Padawan laying face down in the snow. "What was the name of the Jedi who visited you?"

"Qui-Gon Jinn," Tony said, "a fired coworker of yours?"

Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed with a pang to his heart, glaring at nothing but wishing the man who said that was in front of him now. "He was my master and he is no longer with us, one with the Force," he said, "the man who came to you is an impostor, more than likely a bounty hunter knowing that we would initiate a follow up investigation."

"Define 'Jedi,' please," Tony asked, flipping open his helmet. He was a fair-skinned man who looked a little older than Obi-Wan, with a black goatee, intelligent, brown eyes, and short black hair. "Right now, 'baby stealer' might not be great for your image.

"My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi General of the Galactic Republic," he said, "we are the balance against darkness, protectors of the light, and the guardians of the galaxy. I'll go with you to clear up this entire mess, we are here on a mission vital to the existence of your universe as you know it."

The three strange men glanced at each other and back at the Jedi. "What about the third member of your group?" Tony asked.

"If you can help us repair our ships and find him," Obi-Wan said, "he can tell you more about our purpose than I ever could. That way, we both get what we need from each other."

Obi-Wan picked Anakin up off the ground, putting his Padawan's arm over his shoulder to keep him standing. "Before we take you in," Tony said, "if that bounty hunter was expecting you here, then you were after the same thing. Why did he try to take a child from his home?"

"That child," Obi-Wan said, "if he even found the right one, has incredible latent power in the Force beyond anything we have ever seen before, and he is in grave danger if a bounty hunter has already made contact. We're here to find him and secure him from those who wish to use his powers for evil. That criminal was only the beginning, and with the dual threat of the Infinity Stones, we cannot afford to take anything for granted."

"We will see to your ships," Thor said, hefting Anakin on his shoulder with ease, "and you will meet with our organizer who directed us to you to relay all of this again."

"Galactic Republic, Infinity Stones, Jedi, the Force," Steve said, "for once the Avengers stand completely lost."

"I'll tell you, don't worry," Obi-Wan said, realizing just how far on the Outer Rim he was stuck on, "but I have a feeling that what results from this meeting will be bigger than all of us."

* * *

 **WILL OUR TWO HEROES FIND MASTER YODA? WHERE WILL OUR FAVORITE LITTLE GREEN JEDI LAND? CHAPTER 5 WILL FOCUS ON THE GRANDMASTER, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? WHAT DID YOU THINK OF YONDU? WILL THE RAVAGERS MAKE A TRIP TO CORUSCANT? WHO WILL OUR JEDI HEROES MEET NEXT? REVIEW!**


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